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Diffstat (limited to 'bip-0009.mediawiki')
| -rw-r--r-- | bip-0009.mediawiki | 224 |
1 files changed, 118 insertions, 106 deletions
diff --git a/bip-0009.mediawiki b/bip-0009.mediawiki index 78298f0..49e6adf 100644 --- a/bip-0009.mediawiki +++ b/bip-0009.mediawiki @@ -18,135 +18,147 @@ This document specifies a proposed change to the semantics of the 'version' fiel BIP 34 introduced a mechanism for doing soft-forking changes without a predefined flag timestamp (or flag block height), instead relying on measuring miner support indicated by a higher version number in block headers. As it relies on comparing version numbers as integers however, it only supports one single change being rolled out at once, requiring coordination between proposals, and does not allow for permanent rejection: as long as one soft fork is not fully rolled out, no future one can be scheduled. -In addition, BIP 34 made the integer comparison (nVersion >= 2) a consensus rule after its 95% threshold was reached, removing 2<sup>31</sup>+2 values from the set of valid version numbers (all negative numbers, as nVersion is interpreted as a signed integer, as well as 0 and 1). This indicates another downside this approach: every upgrade permanently restricts the set of allowed nVersion field values. This approach was later reused in BIP 66, which further removed nVersion = 2 as valid option. As will be shown further, this is unnecessary. +In addition, BIP 34 made the integer comparison (nVersion >= 2) a consensus rule after its 95% threshold was reached, removing 2<sup>31</sup>+2 values from the set of valid version numbers (all negative numbers, as nVersion is interpreted as a signed integer, as well as 0 and 1). This indicates another downside this approach: every upgrade permanently restricts the set of allowed nVersion field values. This approach was later reused in BIP 66 and BIP 65, which further removed nVersions 2 and 3 as valid options. As will be shown further, this is unnecessary. ==Specification== -===Mechanism=== +Each soft fork deployment is specified by the following per-chain parameters (further elaborated below): -'''Bit flags''' -We are permitting several independent soft forks to be deployed in parallel. For each, a bit B is chosen from the set {0,1,2,...,28}, which is not currently in use for any other ongoing soft fork. Miners signal intent to enforce the new rules associated with the proposed soft fork by setting bit 1<sup>B</sup> in nVersion to 1 in their blocks. +# The '''bit''' determines which bit in the nVersion field of the block is to be used to signal the soft fork lock-in and activation. It is chosen from the set {0,1,2,...,28}. +# The '''starttime''' specifies a minimum median time past of a block at which the bit gains its meaning. +# The '''timeout''' specifies a time at which the deployment is considered failed. If the median time past of a block >= timeout and the soft fork has not yet locked in (including this block's bit state), the deployment is considered failed on all descendants of the block. -'''High bits''' -The highest 3 bits are set to 001, so the range of actually possible nVersion values is [0x20000000...0x3FFFFFFF], inclusive. This leaves two future upgrades for different mechanisms (top bits 010 and 011), while complying to the constraints set by BIP34 and BIP66. Having more than 29 available bits for parallel soft forks does not add anything anyway, as the (nVersion >= 3) requirement already makes that impossible. +The starttime should be set to some date in the future, coordinates with software release date. This is to prevent +triggers as a result of parties running pre-release software. The timeout should be set a reasonable time after the +starttime. A later deployment using the same bit is possible as long as the starttime is after the previous one's +timeout or activation, though it is recommended to have a pause in between to detect buggy software. -'''States''' -With every softfork proposal we associate a state BState, which begins -at ''defined'', and can be ''locked-in'', ''activated'', -or ''failed''. Transitions are considered after each -retarget period. +Setting the timeout to 3 years after the starttime allows at least 9 new deployments per year. -'''Soft Fork Support''' -Software which supports the change should begin by setting B in all blocks -mined until it is resolved. +====States==== - if (BState != activated && BState != failed) { - SetBInBlock(); - } +With each block and soft fork, we associate a deployment state. The possible states are: + +# '''DEFINED''' is the first state that each soft fork starts out as. The genesis block is by definition in this state for each deployment. +# '''STARTED''' for blocks past the starttime. +# '''LOCKED_IN''' for one retarget period after the first retarget period with STARTED blocks of which at least threshold have the associated bit set in nVersion. +# '''ACTIVE''' for all blocks after the LOCKED_IN retarget period. +# '''FAILED''' for one retarget period past the timeout time, if LOCKED_IN was not reached. + +====Bit flags==== + +Blocks in the STARTED state get an nVersion whose bit position bit is set to 1. The top 3 bits of such blocks must be +001, so the range of actually possible nVersion values is [0x20000000...0x3FFFFFFF], inclusive. + +Due to the constraints set by BIP 34, BIP 66 and BIP 65, we only have 0x7FFFFFFB possible nVersion values available. +This restricts us to at most 30 independent deployments. By restricting the top 3 bits to 001 we get 29 out of those +for the purposes of this proposal, and support two future upgrades for different mechanisms (top bits 010 and 011). +When a block nVersion does not have top bits 001, it is treated as if all +bits are 0 for the purposes of deployments. + +Miners should continue setting the bit in LOCKED_IN phase so uptake is visible, though this has no effect on +consensus rules. -'''Success: Lock-in Threshold''' -If bit B is set in 1916 (1512 on testnet) or -more of the 2016 blocks within a retarget period, it is considered -''locked-in''. Miners should continue setting bit B, so uptake is -visible. +====New consensus rules==== - if (NextBlockHeight % 2016 == 0) { - if (BState == defined && Previous2016BlocksCountB() >= 1916) { - BState = locked-in; - BActiveHeight = NextBlockHeight + 2016; +The new consensus rules for each soft fork are enforced for each block that has ACTIVE state. + +====State transitions==== + +<img src="bip-0009/states.png" align="middle"></img> + +The genesis block has state DEFINED for each deployment, by definition. + + State GetStateForBlock(block) { + if (block.height == 0) { + return DEFINED; } - } -'''Success: Activation Delay''' -The consensus rules related to ''locked-in'' soft fork will be enforced in -the second retarget period; ie. there is a one retarget period in -which the remaining 5% can upgrade. At the that activation block and -after, miners should stop setting bit B, which may be reused for a different soft fork. - - if (BState == locked-in && NextBlockHeight == BActiveHeight) { - BState = activated; - ApplyRulesForBFromNextBlock(); - /* B can be reused, immediately */ - } - -'''Failure: Timeout''' -A soft fork proposal should include a ''timeout''. This is measured -as the beginning of a calendar year as per this table (suggest -adding three to the current calendar year when drafting the soft fork proposal): - -{| -! Timeout Year -! >= Seconds -! Timeout Year -! >= Seconds -|- -|2018 -|1514764800 -|2026 -|1767225600 -|- -|2019 -|1546300800 -|2027 -|1798761600 -|- -|2020 -|1577836800 -|2028 -|1830297600 -|- -|2021 -|1609459200 -|2029 -|1861920000 -|- -|2022 -|1640995200 -|2030 -|1893456000 -|- -|2023 -|1672531200 -|2031 -|1924992000 -|- -|2024 -|1704067200 -|2032 -|1956528000 -|- -|2025 -|1735689600 -|2033 -|1988150400 -|} - -If the soft fork still not ''locked-in'' and the -GetMedianTimePast() of a block following a retarget period is at or -past this timeout, miners should cease setting this bit. - - if (NextBlockHeight % 2016 == 0) { - if (BState == defined && GetMedianTimePast(nextblock) >= BFinalYear) { - BState = failed; +All blocks within a retarget period have the same state. This means that if +floor(block1.height / 2016) = floor(block2.height / 2016), they are guaranteed to have the same state for every +deployment. + + if ((block.height % 2016) != 0) { + return GetStateForBlock(block.parent); + } + +Otherwise, the next state depends on the previous state: + + switch (GetStateForBlock(GetAncestorAtHeight(block, block.height - 2016))) { + +We remain in the initial state until either we pass the start time or the timeout. GetMedianTimePast in the code below +refers to the median nTime of a block and its 10 predecessors. The expression GetMedianTimePast(block.parent) is +referred to as MTP in the diagram above, and is treated as a monotonic clock defined by the chain. + + case DEFINED: + if (GetMedianTimePast(block.parent) >= timeout) { + return FAILED; + } + if (GetMedianTimePast(block.parent) >= starttime) { + return STARTED; + } + return DEFINED; + +After a period in the STARTED state, if we're past the timeout, we switch to FAILED. If not, we tally the bits set, +and transition to LOCKED_IN if a sufficient number of blocks in the past period set the deployment bit in their +version numbers. The threshold is 1915 blocks (95% of 2016), or 1512 for testnet (75% of 2016). +The transition to FAILED takes precendence, as otherwise an ambiguity can arise. +There could be two non-overlapping deployments on the same bit, where the first one transitions to LOCKED_IN while the +other one simultaneously transitions to STARTED, which would mean both would demand setting the bit. + +Note that a block's state never depends on its own nVersion; only on that of its ancestors. + + case STARTED: { + if (GetMedianTimePast(block.parent) >= timeout) { + return FAILED; + } + int count = 0; + walk = block; + for (i = 0; i < 2016; i++) { + walk = walk.parent; + if (walk.nVersion & 0xE0000000 == 0x2000000 && (walk.nVersion >> bit) & 1 == 1) { + count++; + } + } + if (count >= threshold) { + return LOCKED_IN; + } } - } -After another retarget period (to allow detection of buggy miners), -the bit may be reused. +After a retarget period of LOCKED_IN, we automatically transition to ACTIVE. -'''Warning system''' -To support upgrade warnings, an extra "unknown upgrade" is tracked, using the "implicit bit" mask = (block.nVersion & ~expectedVersion) != 0. Mask will be non-zero whenever an unexpected bit is set in nVersion. Whenever lock-in for the unknown upgrade is detected, the software should warn loudly about the upcoming soft fork. It should warn even more loudly after the next retarget period. + case LOCKED_IN: + return ACTIVE; -'''Forks''' +And ACTIVE and FAILED are terminal states, which a deployment stays in once they're reached. + + case ACTIVE: + return ACTIVE; + + case FAILED: + return FAILED; + } + } + +'''Implementation''' It should be noted that the states are maintained along block chain branches, but may need recomputation when a reorganization happens. -===Support for future changes=== +Given that the state for a specific block/deployment combination is completely determined by its ancestry before the +current retarget period (i.e. up to and including its ancestor with height block.height - 1 - (block.height % 2016)), +it is possible to implement the mechanism above efficiently and safely by caching the resulting state of every multiple-of-2016 +block, indexed by its parent. + +====Warning mechanism==== + +To support upgrade warnings, an extra "unknown upgrade" is tracked, using the "implicit bit" mask = (block.nVersion & ~expectedVersion) != 0. Mask will be non-zero whenever an unexpected bit is set in nVersion. Whenever LOCKED_IN for the unknown upgrade is detected, the software should warn loudly about the upcoming soft fork. It should warn even more loudly after the next retarget period (when the unknown upgrade is in the ACTIVE state). + +==Support for future changes== The mechanism described above is very generic, and variations are possible for future soft forks. Here are some ideas that can be taken into account. '''Modified thresholds''' -The 95% threshold (based on in BIP 34) does not have to be maintained for eternity, but changes should take the effect on the warning system into account. In particular, having a lock-in threshold that is incompatible with the one used for the warning system may have long-term effects, as the warning system cannot rely on a permanently detectable condition anymore. +The 1915 threshold (based on in BIP 34's 95%) does not have to be maintained for eternity, but changes should take the effect on the warning system into account. In particular, having a lock-in threshold that is incompatible with the one used for the warning system may have long-term effects, as the warning system cannot rely on a permanently detectable condition anymore. '''Conflicting soft forks''' At some point, two mutually exclusive soft forks may be proposed. The naive way to deal with this is to never create software that implements both, but that is making a bet that at least one side is guaranteed to lose. Better would be to encode "soft fork X cannot be locked-in" as consensus rule for the conflicting soft fork - allowing software that supports both, but can never trigger conflicting changes. |